local foods impact conference – workshop b-2 · tracking results from the 2016 mi pilot project...

TRACKING RESULTS FROM THE 2016 MI PILOT

PROJECT FOR PROCUREMENT OF UNPROCESSED FRUITS AND

VEGETABLES…

AND BEYOND

LOCAL FOODS IMPACT CONFERENCE – WORKSHOP B-2

“MEASURING STATE-LEVEL PROGRAM

AND BUSINESS IMPACTS”

© 2017 Farmlogix, LLC. Proprietary, do not distribute

Our Roots: Automating and Tracking The Supply Chain By Getting Our Hands Dirty -Contracting farms -Paying farms by their terms -Taking title to crops -Vendor to distributors for Farm To School -Multi-distributor logistics management -Multi-buyer demand aggregation and procurement -Tracking by farm product, miles to location, state, product -Self-reporting and analysis of $30M+ of local purchasing data to date


Our Hybrid Model In Action: Food To Market Challenge


MI Pilot Project Background

MI Specialty Crop Block Grant Project Scope • Original scope was to track % of local in 2015-16. • Due to the success of the program we offered to test a Pilot invoicing

system by including this service in the grant. • Our report indicated what is local, where further opportunities to

source local exist, and provide MI with a dashboard for MI Dept. of Education and USDA to self-report

Process to Manage Pilot • FarmLogix is provided with a list of approved distributors, districts,

vendors and products. • Schools purchase available products from distributors • Distributors submit invoices to FarmLogix which is downloaded into

the invoice processing system. • MI Dept. of Ed. approves invoices. • Approved files are converted to the USDA-compliant spreadsheet for

invoice processing. • A reporting dashboard allows MI Department of Education and USDA

to run reports on MI, and potentially multi-state, activity.

• The grant ends and program end on May 31st, 2017.


The MI Pilot Online Dashboard Program: The Key To Full Transparency and Automation

Distributor Invoice Submission

MDE Invoice Approval USDA Invoice Processing System Data Aggregation

FarmLogix Reporting and Insights


Data Case Studies/USDA: MI Pilot Distributor Dashboard FarmLogix loads each Distributor’s invoices into a single file by time period (month) that can be viewed from each Distributor/Vendor dashboard. 5,000 invoices can be uploaded per 15-minute time period. Submitted invoices are transmitted to the MDE/Administrator dashboard. Once Submitted Distributors can no longer adjust prices and quantities of invoices. Distributors have full transparency into the invoice approval status.

Invoice view of the Distributor dashboard.

Participant approval history can be

viewed by all users.

Distributors can access payment status from

their dashboards.


Data Case Studies/USDA: MI Pilot Distributor Dashboard MDE (Program Administrator) can open each invoice file to approve all invoices from all MI Vendors and Distributors with a single click. MDE can also add/remove products and adjust pricing. MDE Confirms the invoice which then appears on the USDA AMS dashboard, and can then only be adjusted by USDA AMS.

Multiple invoices can be submitted by a

single file by any date range.

Only approved MDE products per

distributor can be selected. MDE can add new products, vendors

and districts.

Only approved MDE Districts can be invoiced by a Distributor.

SFFA codes and States load

automatically.

Adminstrators can adjust invoices and see mileage to a

district’s local for local assessment.


Data Case Studies/USDA: MI Pilot MDE Dashboard MDE can report on all activity by any metric, including local based on system GPS, farm, product, spend, District, Consortia, Distributor, time period/school year, and total use of funds. Self-reporting and output into graphical reports are also system features. The system can also merge local purchasing activity supplied by the State Dept. of Ag. to tell a larger MI story.

MDE can view the status of all

invoices. Invoices with outstanding issues are clearly

visible.

MDE can run reporting by

limitless metrics. GPS tracks miles to location and

products by state.

Reporting tells the story for MI, and can be aggregated to tell

stories by other states.


Data Case Studies/USDA: USDA Pilot Dashboard USDA AMS can adjust invoice files until they are marked as Paid. USDA AMS can also export the files into the Pilot-compliant spreadsheet for payment processing from the USDA Pilot dashboard. All invoices can be tabbed by Distributor for statewide monthly submission. USDA AMS pament CP # is recorded in the system and is auto-associated with entire invoice file for efficient invoice payment history if necessary. Shown is Sysco Grand Rapids’ February payment file with processed CP#.

USDA-compliant file exports for each

distributor to streamline the

approval process.

CP Invoice numbers can be entered

upon payment and invoices marked

only by USDA AMS.

Payment history is visible to Distributor, state Administrator

and AMS.


“The (USDA) Pilot Project for the Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables program is a fantastic opportunity for school districts to utilize their USDA Foods entitlement on quality, fairly-priced produce for their school meal programs. Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is pleased to communicate the success realized through our partnership with FarmLogix. The services of FarmLogix were made available via a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant and has assisted our office with the tracking, reconciling, and consolidating of purchasing data of the program transactions for the UFV Pilot in MI. Prior to having the services of FarmLogix, our office spent an enormous amount of staff hours merging excel spreadsheets, calculating entitlement spent, reconciling entitlement between districts, WBSCM entitlement calculations, verifying sales data with school districts, reviewing invoices for discrepancies (errors/duplication/unapproved districts/unapproved produce items), reporting by produce type, local purchasing reporting, and much more. We recently calculated that by utilizing the FarmLogix system, our staff was spared approximately 608 hour of work for the current school year.” Jaime K. Malnar, MHSA School District Consultant


Prior Challenges Identified in Process Invoice Processing & Payment Challenges 1. Manual process - key entry of 5,000+ monthly invoices 2. Entry error potential 3. Duplicates, pricing errors, invoices from ineligible districts, products

and vendors identified after payment. 4. Data merge inefficiencies- data segregated by distributor./vendor 5. Distributor and vendor payment delays 6. Vendor frustration and loss of interest in participation Reporting and Transparency Challenges 1. Lack of data aggregation tools for reporting for participating states. 2. Lack of data aggregation for multi-state program reporting (ie. we

can easily report on total local apple sales for program). 3. Lack of participant self-reporting and graphical reporting tools. 4. We can build additional data safeguards to streamline invoice

processing and aggegate multi-state reporting, but would need further engagement from USDA FNS/AMS or be deployed by state.


Additional Relevant Solutions: National Local Foods Report- 2015 LFPP Grant USDA GAP and 3rd party audit management Buy American foodservice compliance Economical FSMA compliance tools Food Hub ERP (E-commerce, logistics mgmt., food safety)


Data Aggregation: 2015 LFPP Grant Last Mile Local Food Study: 30M pounds of data Last Mile local foods data 138 distributors 50 states Sales by vertical Sales by region Sales by crop 500 pages of data Summary reports Custom sorting


Certification Technologies GAP Expiration Management Buy American compliance GAP Certifications can be

uploaded and stored with expiration dates visible.

Farms and USDA can receive notification 90, 60

and 30 days prior to expiration. At expiration

invoices for product cannot be processed.

The system tracks unlimited

sustainable attributes that

appear at the line item by product,

including Buy American.

System can store limitless

certifications and crops covered.

Food safety data generates labels that

correlate to the original PO, distributor product code and processor’s

GTIN

Farms networks can send and

receive purchase orders and provide e-commerce to customers.

Hubs are alerted if a PO changes due to shorts or

cancellations

All hub customers can order online

and run local food reports from their own dashboard.


Food safety data links to delivery

data for end to end transparency

FSMA Compliance and Food Hub Technologies Economical tools to support small usiness to keep families on the farm.

Farms can enter in food safety

information that is permanently

stored in system

Logistics management generates csutomer

confimrations, invoicing and bills of lading.


Our Contribution: Transparent Local Foods Reporting Platform To Gather And Tell Our

Collective Local Foods Story.

Innovations In Transparency

THE OPEN FIELDS PROJECT

local foods impact conference – workshop b-2 · tracking results from the 2016 mi pilot project...

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